This year’s New York Comic Con may have been the event’s 20th anniversary, but it wasn’t the only anniversary milestone being celebrated this weekend; 2026 is the 25th anniversary of Smallville—a beloved piece of 2000s television (created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar) that paved the way for the modern era of superhero TV audiences are accustomed to today. The weekly series ran for 10 seasons (2001-2011), and averaged 20-23 episodes per season. It followed a pre-Superman Clark Kent (Tom Welling) from his teenage years at Smallville High School to his time as a young adult at the Daily Planet, with familiar friends and foes along the way, like Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), Lois Lane (Erica Durance), and Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk).
In “The Road to Superman: 25 Years of Smallville” panel Saturday, moderated by Julie Snyder, Welling, Rosenbaum, Durance, and Kreuk were all on hand to reminisce and share stories with a passionate audience.
Throughout Smallville, the cast had to consistently take over-the-top comic book material and make it human for those watching at home. When it came to a takeaway from the series as a whole, Welling learned to take any story material thrown at him, no matter how ridiculous, and elevate it alongside his cast. “Collectively we always, as a cast, were like, ‘All right! Let’s do it.’ I think that’s a good mentality to have not only in life but especially when you have a scene where you’re talking about these things that are very hard to relate to. But at least you have a partner there. You’re in it together, and you’re like, ‘All right, let’s make this work.’”
Whether through the lens of Clark Kent or Lex Luthor, Smallville was a show about the journey of becoming who you were meant to be. When asked about this by a fan, Rosenbaum and Kreuk thought about how the show exemplified how one can be influenced by both choice and situational circumstance.
“We all have a journey. In the show, Lex had this journey, and Clark. I mean, we all did, really,” Rosenbaum said. “But ultimately, you have a choice, no matter how bad things are or how bad things get. You have a choice. Lex didn’t have to go down the dark path.”
“The show also posits that the way that you are raised and all the conditions of your upbringing result in the person that you become, and that is an inevitable occurrence,” Kreuk said. “So that’s a possibility. I’m not saying that you don’t have a choice, but there is an argument to be made that because of these two very different situations [of Lex Luthor and Clark Kent], these two men ended up in very different places.”
Durance talked about admiring Lois’s strength and how that has tied into her own journey. “Lois always fought for people. She was really strong,” Durance said. “I think that it’s taken me this long to start fighting for myself, and so I love her.”
When asked about directors on Smallville, Welling and Rosenbaum talked about moments from directors and fellow actors that stuck with them. Welling talked about Terrence O’Hara, who directed “Ryan” from Season 2, and how he helped guide an actor through an emotional scene. “He goes, ‘Listen, I know it says you’re supposed to cry. I don’t need you to cry. Don’t worry about it. If it comes, that’s fine, you know. But I don’t think we really need it.’ And in the next take, that kid was waterworks. He just allowed the space for the actor.”
Rosenbaum talked about how John Glover, who played Lex Luthor’s father, gave him advice on an explosive, destructive scene that was giving Rosenbaum trouble during the first season. “John Glover just comes up and goes, ‘Son. Lex. Just listen to what I’m saying,’ and I go, ‘Holy shit!’ I forgot to listen. I was just so worried about throwing shit off the shelves and getting upset. I wasn’t listening to his words. Once I listened. Boom. Like that.”
Stay tuned to The Beat for more news from NYCC ‘26.
